As is well known, the problem of disposing of organic wastes has reached crisis proportions. Originally, waste products from human civilization were disposed of by merely pouring them into lakes and rivers or dumping them on unused land. However, as the human population has grown and as civilization has become more and more complex these are no longer suitable solutions to the problem of waste disposal, because, at the present time, our rivers and lakes have become so polluted that animal and plant life growing therein has gradually been destroyed. Moreover, such a large amount of waste material is now being disposed of in such a manner that even the oceans are no longer adequate to take care of it.
In recent times many methods have been devised to solve the problem of disposing of organic wastes. However, for the most part, the methods are so expensive that so far very little has been done in solving the problem.
In addition to the pollution problem created by the ever-growing population of the world, the excess population has also created a need for more food material. However, arable land is decreasing because of the loss of topsoil, and even if arable land were not decreasing, there would still be a need for more and more food grown on the existing arable land, which, inter ali, requires increased production of cheap and inexpensive fertilizers.
From the foregoing, it is apparent that it is a desideratum in the art to provide an inexpensive method for disposal of organic wastes in a way which would not pollute the environment. Moreover, an excellent solution to the problem of disposing of such wastes would be to utilize them to create topsoil and/or fertilizer in order to better feed the ever-growing population.
The primary object of the present invention therefore is to disclose and provide a method for easily converting organic wastes into inert materials which are easily disposed of without pollution of the ennvironment.
Another object of the present invention is to disclose and provide a process for compacting the diverse organic waste materials of society, such as garbage, sewage solids and manures, rubbish and trash, by converting the wastes into uniform granular char products, of considerably reduced weight and volume, which are suitable for use as non-polluting landfill; by reacting the organic wastes with certain acids under drying conditions, removing residual acid and other water-soluable contaminants by washing the resultant crude char product with water (from which the acid may be recovered for re-use), and utilizing the resulting inert product as a landfill.
Another object of the present invention is to diclose and provide a method for disposing of organic wastes which includes converting said organic wastes into the alkali salts of humic-acid-like materials and mixing said humic-acid-like materials into soil in order to condition or build up the topsoil and/or to fertilize the soil; by reacting the organic humus-like char product of the acid charring of wastes with alkalis at elevated temperatures to produce the alkali salts of humic-acid-like materials, neutralizing said alkali salts with appropriate fertilizing substances (e.g. phosphoric acid), and mixing the resultant materials into the soil.